The secret tapes

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Did you hear about the secret tape recordings that were released on President Bush? These were taped without the knowledge of Bush back in the late nineties before he ran for president. He was having what he thought to be a private conversation with a "friend." Wow, you can just imagine all the real dirt that those tapes must have uncovered on Bush, right?

Well, guess what? George W. Bush says nothing in those private conversations that is in any way negative for him. If anything, he comes off looking great! It turns out that the "private" George W. Bush is exactly the same man as the "public" George W. Bush. It shows him to be an honest, devoted husband, father, and patriot who cares deeply about America's kids and has no prejudice against gays or any other minority group. Sorry liberals.

WE INTERUPT THIS COLUMN TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING LATE-BREAKING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS NEWS FLASH......

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Doug Wead sneakily recorded his conversations with Bush beginning in 1998 when Bush was governor of Texas and considering a run for president. Bush had no idea his candid conversations with someone he thought to be a "friend" was being taped. Now this guy Wead has written a book and is using those tapes to promote it. Wead, the sleaze, contacted the New York Times and got them to print transcripts of some of the conversations. The liberal Times no doubt thought they were on to something which would embarrass the President with a scandalous revelation of President Bush's character. But it hasn't quite worked out that way.

On the question of whether he had ever used marijuana, Bush says that he doesn't agree with the approach Al Gore took  that is; brazenly admit that he has used the drug. Bush says he simply refuses to answer the marijuana question. "Do you want your little kid, to say, 'Hey daddy, President Bush tried marijuana; I think I will?'" said Bush on the tapes. "That's the message we've been sending out. I wouldn't answer the marijuana question."

The tapes are revealing also in that they seem to prove once and for all that Bush never used cocaine. You might recall that much of the media tried to get him to admit cocaine use during the 2000 presidential campaign. "The cocaine thing, let me tell you my strategy on that," Bush said on the tape. "Rather than saying no … I think it's time for someone to draw the line and look people in the eye and say, you know, 'I'm not going to participate in ugly rumors about me and blame my opponent,' and hold the line. Stand up for a system that will not allow this kind of crap to go on."

The tapes also show Bush's concern about keeping his evangelical Christian base happy while showing tolerance to gays. In one conversation, Wead said on the tape: "He's saying you promised you would not appoint any gays to office." Bush replied: "No, what I said was I wouldn't fire gays. … I'm not going to discriminate against people."

"I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas. He said he told Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"

President Bush had some choice words for his predecessor, Bill Clinton, in the tapes, too. Speaking in 1998, when news headlines were filled with lurid details of Clinton's involvement with intern Monica Lewinsky, Bush decried the investigation into the scandal, telling Wead, "I don't like it either." "But on the other hand," Bush added in the next breath, "I think he has disgraced the nation."

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush would say publicly that he intended to "restore the honor and dignity" of the office, but never directly referenced any of the Clinton scandals  and he never personally attacked the president himself.

At the GOP convention in Philadelphia that year, the Bush campaign went so far as to decline to allow an on-site tribute to the Republican House members who prosecuted Clinton's impeachment  one of Bush's first attempts to bring the now famous "new tone" to Washington.

Privately, however, Bush was more candid, acknowledging that while his past wasn't perfect, there was a key difference between how he and Clinton handled their respective problems. "I did some things when I was young that were immature," he told Wead. "The difference between me and the president [is] I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office."

When asked if being president might not go to his head he categorically said he wasn't worried that that would happen. In essence he said that his love and respect for Laura and his love of G-d would keep it all in perspective for him. A man who loves his wife and his G-d. How refreshing. How lucky for us that this man is our president. At the risk of repeating myself … sorry liberals.

JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a
letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.